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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

ATX Or Bust

My sister and I have been coming to Austin for years. While it's not really a vacation per se, it's a great weekend getaway without much travel time. So when my mom invited Mark and I to stay the weekend with she and my sister in Austin, we were definitely excited (and excited to make a stop in West for some kolaches).

We didn't have much of an agenda headed to Austin other than relax. I made a small list of fun things we could do if we wanted, but our main goal was just to spend some quality family time together.

Thanks to Hotwire, we ended up in an awesome hotel on Town Lake. This hotel was in the perfect location- five minutes away from almost everything. Our first night in Austin, we finally got to try Stubb's BBQ. Erin and I had been there to see Muse before, but this was my first time eating there and I loved it. I see now why it's so well known for its concert and its food!

Saturday was our first full day in Austin, so we took advantage of a non-agenda and slept in. Towards the middle of the day we headed out to south Congress street to explore some of the shops and unique stands.

After about an hour we realized how how it really was and headed to grab lunch at a little sub shop called Toastie's. They had a great kids meal PB&J, I'll say that much. The rest of the day we spent relaxing and exploring before heading to Hula Hut for Mexican food on the lake.

On Sunday we decided to be a bit more adventurous and head to New Braunfels to float the Comal river. Erin and my mom were first time floaters, but Mark and I had both been before in college. Although it was extremely hot outside (and they restrict water bottles now...dumb), we had a great time floating for nearly three hours.

When we got back to the hotel we were tired, sweaty and sunburned. We decided to shower and relax before busting out the Bananagrams. After the bananagramming has concluded, we headed over to a place I'd seen online called Moonshine Patio & Grill. This place was awesome and brought a bucket of popcorn to our table as soon as we sat down (always a bonus). We ended the night by stopping off at Gourdough's donut truck...but more about this in a future post. ;)

Mark and I had plans to head home Monday, but Erin and my mom were going to stay in Austin one more day to spend time together before Erin goes back to Norman. Since Mark and I weren't going to leave until around 3:30, we wanted to do a few more things before we left. After breakfast we all headed to the IMAX theatre downtown to see a movie about the Arctic in 3D. It was definitely worth it! We lunched (not really a verb) at a restaurant called Old Pecan Cafe downtown and then finished our trip up with a stop in Tyler's (hello clearance Nike running shorts).

Now Mark and I are driving back home after a fun filled weekend. I'm sad to leave Austin, but excited to stop by Baylor and pick up some Cowboy Coffee. <3